An Overview of the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD)

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• An Overview of the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer
  (HIRAD)
• Robbie Hood, Ruba Amarin, Robert Atlas, M.C.
  Bailey, Peter Black, Courtney Buckley, Shuyi
  Chen, Roger DeRoo, Salem El-Nimri, Steve Gross,
  Christopher Hennon, Glenn Hopkins, Mark James,
  James Johnson, Linwood Jones, Frank LaFontaine,
  Timothy Miller, Christopher Ruf, David Simmons,
  Eric Uhlhorn, and Joe Cione

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Team Roles

• NASA PI Robbie Hood NOAA PI Eric Uhlhorn
• Technical Advisory Committee Joe Cione, Marty
  Kress, Joe Casas, Mark Boudreaux
• Engineering Partners M.C. Bailey, Roger DeRoo,
  Steve Gross, Mark James, James Johnson, Linwood
  Jones, Christopher Ruf, and David Simmons
• Science Partners - Ruba Amarin, Robert Atlas,
  Peter Black, Courtney Buckley, Shuyi Chen, Salem
  El-Nimri, Christopher Hennon, James Johnson,
  Linwood Jones, Frank LaFontaine, Timothy Miller,
  Christopher Ruf

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HIRAD Technology Investment Roadmap
Satellite Demonstration of Improved Hurricane
Ocean Surface Vector Winds and Rain Rate
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Demonstration (optional)
Aircraft Demonstration
Technology Transfer Operational Reconnaissance
Hurricane Aircraft (optional)
Technology Brassboard Demonstration in Laboratory
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Overview
HIRAD Design Team
HIRAD Description
C-band (4-7 GHz) frequencies Synthetic thinned
array radiometer (STAR) Pushbroom imager Single
polarization for ocean wind speed Dual
polarization for ocean vector wind
HIRAD Development Timeline
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Sensitivity of WindSat 6.8 GHz
Based on 2006 HWind analysis of Hurricanes
Dennis, Katrina, Rita
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Technical Overview

Sideview of antenna element

• Utilization of NASA Earth Science Office
  Technologies
• Synthetic thinned aperture radiometer
• Digital correlation in field programmable gate
  array
• Radio Frequency Interference mitigation
• Sensor Web information technology

Engineering concept with aircraft fixtures
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Observing Systems Simulation Experiment
Results presented by Tim Miller at AMS Annual
Meeting (Jan 08) and AMS Hurricane Conference
(Apr 08)
HURRICANE FRANCIS NATURE RUN
Observation Simulated Comment
QuikSCAT
SFMR (aircraft ocean surface winds sensor) Winds along ground track no cross-track structure
Flight level winds Not used
Dropsonde winds Drops in eyewall and at storm center from aircraft
Airborne Doppler Radar Future work
GOES cloud winds Using actual data for location (relative to storm center), nature run data plus error for wind values
Buoys, ships, coastal sensors
HIRAD 3 aircraft altitudes, satellite
?20 mm/hr
SIMULATED DATA FROM NATURE RUN
With SFMR With HIRAD (11 km)
Double-headed arrow indicates HIRAD swath width
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Aircraft OSSE using HWind
Nature Run in HWind
Simulated without HIRAD
121
109
117
Simulated with HIRAD at 20 km
Simulated with HIRAD at 3 km
82
109
125

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Satellite OSSE using HWind
Nature Run in HWind
Simulated without HIRAD
121
109
117
Simulated with HIRAD at 350 km
82
109
125

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Preliminary Mission Study
Example of sensor swath coverage of an Atlantic
hurricane (yellow symbol) over a typical 24-hour
period. XOVWM swath is red and HIRAD swath is
blue.
Performance Characteristics for HIRAD
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Potential Benefits

• Imagery
• Wind Speeds (10 85 m/s or greater)
• Rainrate (0-50 mm/hr or greater)
• All weather sea surface temperatures
• Aircraft
• Suitable for multiple aircraft
• Improved spatial coverage
• Satellite
• Developing consistent record of hurricane
  intensity for future climate monitoring
• Expanding information available to developing
  countries with limited observational assets